Unity 2019.1: Package Manager resetting all packages on every start?

I originally posted about this in the Visual Effect Graph thread, but it's probably actually a Package Manager issue: I just updated to Unity 2019.1 (2019.1.0b2) and in the current VFX Graph packages (5.2.3, 5.2.1, 5.2.0) there's a compilation error. That compilation error is trivial to fix but each time I close and re-open the project in Unity, Unity seems to try to be "smart" and overwrites my fix.

I'm not sure why the package manager does this - I only know that it almost certainly didn't do this in earlier versions, and this will break VR support for the HDRP render pipeline because that requires changes being applied to the files in the package.

 

A quick question about this... we also modify some files as a hacky workaround in the VFX package since the API isn't public yet (we automate the process so that it accounts for changes from the package manager). If we were to continue to automate this, it possible to selectively overwrite files under the Packages folder? Or do we need to do a comparison, copy everything if needed, then modify some files?

Finally, does the manifest need to be changed in this case (copying the folder to

Packages

)?

 

Hi Pascal,

Thank you for the clarification. How about using Git support? Would that keep the changes?

But as I understand "no subfolder support", I guess this couldn't be used for the Scriptable Render Pipeline, anyways (because the actual packages are subfolders of the repository).

So I guess I'll stay with my approach of using local file references with folders that are synchronized via git. One thing that would be really helpful for that is if the package definition files would have a property for "official, authoritative source on GitHub", if one exists. Something like:

Code (CSharp):

1. {
2.     "name":"com.unity.visualeffectgraph",
3.     "displayName": "Visual Effect Graph",
4.     "version":"5.4.0-preview",
5.     "unity": "2019.1",
6.     "unityRelease": "0b1",
7.     "description":"The Visual Effect Graph is a node based visual effect editor. It enables artists to author next generation visual effects simulated directly on GPU",
8.     "source": "https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/ScriptableRenderPipeline/tree/release/2019.1",
9.     "keywords":[
10.         "vfx",
11.         "visualeffect",
12.         "graph",
13.         "effect",
14.         "particles"
15.     ]
16. }

"source": "https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/ScriptableRenderPipeline/tree/release/2019.1",

Notice that I have included the branch in the URL. As

com.unity.visualeffectgraph

is part of ScriptableRenderPipeline, it just has that as source; so the "source"-property would be the same also for

com.unity.render-pipelines.core

,

com.unity.render-pipelines.high-definition

and so forth.

 

That sounds perfect to me! Makes sense to use a "machine-readable format" handled well by Git. I guess in many cases, we'll simply copy'n'paste those URLs into the command line ;-)

 

Hi @maximeb_unity I have a similar problem with the TextMeshPro package. In my case, the file already appears to be in the Package folder (just started with the package manager so I could be wrong, see the screenshot) but everytime I restart Unity, the change is gone. It didn't happen in 2018.x.

Also if you can contact the TMP team about making a change it would be great : in line 112 of the TMP_Text.cs file, is it possible to make the string "virtual" by default so that the RTL asset can override it without hassle?
Thanks

 

Does it have to be in that location (under Packages in the projects folder)? I'm using quite a few packages from GitHub and have those in a separate folder (shared between multiple projects), but so far, it all seemed to work well.

 

Hey @maximeb_unity ,
It worked for me, thank you